


A Hundred Thousand Ways to Fail, And Only One Way To Succeed

by Louffox



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Bad Ending, Everyone is Dead, Fix-It of Sorts, Pain, RQG FANDOM IS CONFUSED. IT HURT ITSELF IN CONFUSION, Sad Ending, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:42:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22803514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louffox/pseuds/Louffox
Summary: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR 147Zolf has been here before, and he knows they can win. They're better than ever and they're fighting for good. They will win.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 24





	A Hundred Thousand Ways to Fail, And Only One Way To Succeed

**Author's Note:**

> Read the warnings please please please
> 
> And DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT LISTENED TO 147  
> Written on my phone, unbeta'd, basically just an outpouring of angst because I was expecting angst and now I will have it dammit.

Zolf watched the thing pull itself free of the walls and floor with a sort of resigned disbelief. He'd been back with the old mercenary group for under a month (not the old group, just Hamid, the rest were dead gone gone gone) and here he was again. Facing down a giant monster. Machines and brains, labs and villains. It was absurd.

As it creakily stood over him, looming, his residuums flashed with phantom pain. Between blinks, he could see the other machine rising up, towering over him and showing him what new reality he had to look forward to. Chaired. Low. He had been freshly severed and was still realizing he would probably never walk again, so might as well get used to the looming. The memory of that day was stark and sharp, pungent enough to make bile burn at the back of his mouth.  _ Just because Hamid quit puking don't mean you gotta pick up the slack _ , he silently snarled at himself, even as he gripped his glaive and walked forward.

They'd beat it before and they would again. Of course they would. He was better now. They were better now. Better than they'd ever been. Hamid was a dragon. Bertie was dead, and Azu was a more loyal and devoted fighter than that aristocratic menace had the capacity to understand. Cel was flying with some sort of bat power, throat brimming with spiders and a crackling crossbow laid over their arm. And Zolf- he was  _ standing _ on his own. He wasn't fumbling with a half understood religion and a god he felt he owed for saving his life. He was standing. On his own. The power wasn't begged for or stolen or given like a boon he had to pay back. It was his, and it rushed down his arms, up the shaft of his glaive, and burst into flames he could see and feel, tangible evidence of his power.  _ His _ power.

He would do better this time. They would beat it. He knew how it would go.

It was lining up just as such. He took to the air, as did Cel. Azu marched toward it and was radiating a determination that Zolf could almost feel himself, like it was coming across her in waves, as she quietly discerned who her enemy was, and that she would win. And then she hefted her ax.

The smiting blow rocked the foundation they stood upon, and Zolf smiled grimly. They were going to make Shoin beg for mercy.

He heard the familiar drawn breath behind him as Hamid prepared to cast, then the telltale rushing spark of light, and the resounding explosion made the floor tremble again. A thick, oily ball of fire magic and wrath engulfed the organ monster.

When the flames cleared, it appeared undamaged.

Bad.

Zolf winced. The burgeoning sorcerer brought a lot of punch to their battles. Without him, it was going to be much slower.

It was fine. They could do it.

The organ reared back and swung metallic claws, and slapped Cel almost flat from the air. They yowled in pain and made a hasty retreat, lobbing a retch of spiders at it as they backed away.

Zolf drew on his own power and threw a curse down on it as punishment for hurting his friends.

It didn't take.

He spat a swear and flew up and forward, taking up position just behind Azu. The long way, then. Just like before. It had worked then, despite Zolf's faithlessness and Bertie's pigishness. So it would certainly work now.

His projected aura bolstered her, and she took a hard hit. A one-two: a stunning punch, followed by a vicious backhand. It drove her to her knees, but she got back up and squared her shoulders, defiant and unbreakable. Her ax wailed as she brought it screaming through the air again.

Then she took the hit it dealt her. 

She got up.

When Zolf was in battle, he often felt a sense of unity and awareness unlike any other time, except maybe sailing with a crew he knew well. There were words not said, but he could hear them regardless. Thing happening around him he wasn't looking at, but was aware of. He knew Cel had gotten far out of reach and was using their spiders to manage the goo's, and Hamid was uncertainly holding a crossbow and a potion, a bit lost without his magic.

And he knew Azu was feeling a dawning sense of doom.  _ I can't take another hit like that! _

_ Yes, you can _ , he thought, reaching for her.

_ No, I can't _ . 

_ Yes. You can. I've got you _ . His touch alighted on her shoulder, a reassuring grip.  _ And you've got this _ . He found the core of hope within himself, the dense glittering thing that refused to lay down and die, that was so alive it screamed against the stillness and dark and cold, refusing death with every single thing Zolf ever had done- it was all to live. He would live. He would not die. Azu would live. Azu would  _ heal _ . He pushed it through to her, passing the life forward.

  
  
  


That's when the impact took him.

  
  
  


He was slammed bodily into the ground for his effort and lack of attentiveness, and then slapped with a handful of fire.

It hurt. He was bleeding from a number of wounds and definitely had a few broken ribs. Possibly his wrist as well. He blinked, dazed, stunned from the blow.

The life fizzled from his fingertips and dissolved uselessly into empty air. He'd lost connection with her at the vital moment. She healed nothing.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

He was supposed to stand behind her and pour magic into her, strength and ferocity and healing as she traded blows with the monster. And his curses were supposed to weaken it and leave it open for Cel's clever attacks of alchemy and engineering. And Hamid was supposed to slam it with fire magic and make it beg for its life. And none of these things were happening.

Azu's eyes were wide with shock. She reached back for him, her own healing magic sparking at her fingertips.

And then there was another impact.

When the smoke cleared, Azu was face down in the dust. She wasn't moving- no, there was movement.

A slowly spreading pool of blood from beneath her head.

Her armor flickered, and then went out. Flat gray plate. Her ax lay on the floor, inches away from her still and empty hand.

Azu was dead.

Zolf cried out and raised his glaive, which lit fire brighter and more furious than ever before. He didn't have a chance to do anything but that, because when the strike hit him, everything went black.

  
  
  


When he opened his eyes, he could tell it had only been a few seconds, maybe two minutes, max. Hamid was dropping an empty bottle- once had held a healing potion, from the label- and had both his tiny hands gripping a strap of his armor, trying to drag him backwards. He thrashed.

"Hamid! You have to go- run, run, get out of here, get in one of the small tunnels," Zolf hissed, thrashing around a bit, scrambling backwards. He looked around, and saw with horror that Cel was in the air, fighting the thing alone. "No-"

It caught Cel, like a moth snatched from the air, and crushed them in its fist. There was an audible cracking, and blood sprayed from between metallic knuckles. Hamid screamed. No. This can't be happening. Maybe it was all fake. Maybe it was just in their heads again- like-

_ Oh _ .

They hadn't actually fought it and won the first time, had they?

It hadn't been real.

Zolf could only silently beg the universe that the hot blood he felt rain down on them wasn't real, nor the prone orc a few meters away, none of this. No.  _ Please _ .

Hamid let go of Zolf, both a relief and a sadness, but not to run. The halfling stepped toward the monster, and drew a breath. And when he breathed out, it was a tempest of fire. The whole room seemed to darken in contrast to the searing bright flames.

It did nothing, and the monster paid it no mind. It reached right through the fire and grabbed Hamid, choking the breath and fire from him. It threw him against the wall. He cracked into it with a sickening sound, and dropped to the floor in an unnatural position. His bright eyes stared emptily up at the ceiling.

Zolf looked at the monster, even as it stomped to him.

He was alone. Alive. But alone. They had lost. It reached for him.

And then he died.

**Author's Note:**

> Scream at me if it makes you feel better <3
> 
> Helen, Bryn, Ben, Lydia, (and Alex too I suppose): I love you guys, sorry for the murder!


End file.
